Reaching for the stars was the last thing on Keith Buckley’s mind as he hurtled towards the ground at breakneck speed.
But with a parachute strapped to his body, he executed a smooth landing from that sky-diving experience - and is also hoping Bohs hit the ground running now that he’s back.
The midfielder has returned as captain after a year exploring Australia where he also played for non-league Blacktown in Western Sydney, and even managed the team for a spell.
While Down Under, Buckley regularly got up in the early hours to watch Bohs on LOITV, but it was a difficult year for the club and it didn’t make for happy viewing.
Declan Devine ended up replacing long-serving Keith Long as manager and Buckley is his tenth new signing going into tomorrow’s league opener away to promoted Cork City.
Of his year away from the League of Ireland, Gypsies stalwart Buckley said: “I lost some family members during Covid.
“Life's too short and I wanted to get it done before I started to think of settling down.
“I didn't push to play at the highest level possible as I wouldn't have had the freedom to travel, so I played part-time over there.
“Then, in the last month, the manager got sacked so I stepped in with another lad to take the team. We were out of our comfort zone but it was good.
“It was a low level but you had a few lads who played higher and dropped down as they got older.
“But I got to see the whole place. It was a bucket list thing - I jumped out of a plane for my 30th birthday and I swam the Great Barrier Reef.
“With the sky-diving, for about 10 seconds I was the most nervous wreck I had been in my life, but I always wanted to do it.
“I wanted to stay in the Versace Hotel, the one in 'I'm a Celebrity', that was on the bucket list too.”
Buckley wasn’t the only experienced player to leave Gypsies as vice-captain Rob Cornwall went to America and Rotherham snapped up striker Georgie Kelly.
Dawson Devoy also went to England with MK Dons and suddenly the Bohs dressing room was missing some of their big characters - and they paid for it throughout 2022.
Buckley said: “I was getting up at all hours to watch games with the 12-hour time difference and that didn't make it any easier, seeing what was happening.
“The club was on an upwards trajectory for so long. At some stage it was going to have a rocky patch and that's what happened. Now it's back to a new start.
“When I was there before, I'd be telling the younger lads about the importance of the club and maybe Bohs didn't have that person last year.”
There are big changes at the Phibsboro club this year with a move to full-time status, training in the mornings and the appointment of Pat Fenlon as Director of Football.
But Buckley feels it will help Devine’s new look squad to gel quicker as the club looks to put a disappointing year behind them.
He said: “I was always working away during the day, and training in the evenings but now you're in for certain times and double sessions and you feel great, your day is done.
“I know some lads who have left, when we were training in the evenings, they wouldn't get up until 11am or 12pm because there was nothing to get up for.
“Now, being at the breakfast table together you’re putting the phones away and getting to know each other, it builds a connection that will come on the pitch.”
Bohs finished sixth last year and a whopping 20 points off Dundalk, who were third and secured European football.
Quizzed on Bohs’ prospects in 2023, Buckley added: “Could be anything. You have to reach for the stars. We want to be pushing for those European spaces.
“It doesn't matter where you finished last year or what went well or didn't go well. This is the club now. No excuses. We're full-time and we want to push for everything.
“It's pressure but I love it. When things are going great you always get pats on the back and when things aren't going well, it's different.
“We’ve had one bad year, if you call it that, in six or seven years so that's not so bad, is it? Now we want to kick on.”
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